Matt Hubbard sends along this wonderful update. He felt that, having
done the Soul Train guy, it was his duty to send off the AB guy.
http://ao-deadpool.com/ All scoring, photos, updates and lots of
useless information.
I am the wrong age and temperament to appreciate most of the career of
Dick Clark. I was a little too young to see American Bandstand as a
pioneering show legitimizing rock and roll. When I was a kid, it was
big on the bubble gum end of pop music and when I got older, it wasn’t
nearly as watchable as Soul Train. I’ve never been a big fan of New
Year’s Eve, the sweepstakes business is a horrible series of scams,
the bloopers and practical jokes have never amused me much.
But I’ll give him this. He was an interesting host of Pyramid,
however much money they made it worth ($10,000, $25,000, $100,000,
whatever.)
Bill Cullen was the first host of Pyramid, and I always found him a
likeable guy. The thing that set Clark apart was his love for the
post-mortem. There was almost no other game show that had the time
for the host to come over and show up a contestant who just screwed
the pooch on national TV. Clark always made it look like he was being
helpful and the contestants were pretty much forced to take the advice
in good humor, but remember that they just lost a truckload of money,
and this rich guy is quietly and gently putting the needle in.
“How about a baked potato, the Cleveland football team, a derby
restaurant in Los Angeles…”
“Oh, things that are brown! Thanks, Dick, for making me feel even
worse about blowing a real chance for serious cash.”
And so let me finish this obit with a fitting tribute.
“You have 60 seconds. Here is your first subject… GO!”
Beep… Beep… Beep…
“Umm… Zsa Zsa Gabor…”
“Pretty actresses… useless celebrities…”
“Francisco Franco…”
“Europeans… people with fascist tendencies…”
“Zsa Zsa Gabor, Francisco Franco… DICK CLARK!”
Oh, Oh…. PEOPLE WHO TOOK FUCKING FOREVER TO DIE!”
Ding!
HITS
1. Eve Arnold
2. Frederica Maas
3. Malam Bacai Sanhá
4. Bill Janklow
5. Arfa Karim
6. Johnny Otis
7. Etta James
8. Eiko Ishioka
9. Joe Paterno
10. Dick Tufeld
11. Robert Hegyes
12. Kevin White
13. Don Cornelius
14. Ben Gazzara
15. Norton Zinder
16. Peter Breck
17. Gunther Plaut
18. Trent Frayne
19. Whitney Houston
20. John Severin
21. Gary Carter
22. Frank Sanders
23. Sheldon Moldoff
24. Leonardo Cimino
25. William Heirens
26. Robert B. Sherman
27. Jock Hobbs
28. John Demjanjuk
29. Shenouda III
30. Jim Stynes
31. Larry Stevenson
32. Bert Sugar
33. Warren Stevens
34. Earl Scruggs
35. Miguel de la Madrid
36. Leila Denmark
37. Gil Noble
38. Bingu wa Mutharika
39. Mike Wallace
40. Jonathan Frid
41. Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller
42. David Peat
43. Dick Clark
44. Charles Colson
45. Amos Vogel
